Old Mackinaw | Page 3

churches and public
purposes -- Institutions of learning and objects of benevolence --
Fortifications -- Docks and ferries -- Materials for building -- Harbors
-- Natural beauty of the site for a city -- Mountain ranges -- Interior
lakes -- Fish -- Game. 173
CHAPTER XI.
The entrepot of a vast commerce -- Surface drained -- Superiority of
Mackinaw over Chicago as a commercial point -- Exports and imports
-- Michigan the greatest lumber-growing region in the world --
Interminable forests of the choicest pine -- Facilities for market --
Annual product of the pineries -- Lumbering, mining, and fishing
interests -- Independent of financial crises -- Mackinaw the centre of a
great railroad system -- Lines terminating at this point -- North and
South National Line -- Canada grants -- Growth of Northwestern cities
-- Future growth and prosperity of Mackinaw -- Chicago -- Legislative
provision for opening roads in Michigan -- The Forty Acre Homestead
Bill -- Its provisions. 205
CHAPTER XII.

The Great Western Valley -- Its growth and population -- Comparison
of Atlantic with interior cities -- Relative growth of river and lake cities
-- Centre of population -- Lake tonnage -- Progress of the principal
centres of population. 228
CHAPTER XIII.
Michigan Agricultural Reports for 1854 -- Prof. Thomas' report --
Report of J. S. Dixon -- Products of States -- Climate -- Army
Meteorological Reports. 255
CHAPTER XIV.
Agricultural interest -- Means of transportation -- Railways and vessels
-- Lumber -- Vessels cleared -- Lake cities and Atlantic ports --
Home-market -- Breadstuffs -- Michigan flour -- Monetary panics --
Wheat -- Importations -- Provisions -- Fruit -- Live stock -- Wool --
Shipping business -- Railroads -- Lake Superior trade -- Pine lumber
trade -- Copper interest -- Iron interest -- Fisheries -- Coal mines -- Salt
-- Plaster beds. 272
CHAPTER XV.
Desirableness of a trip to the Lakes -- Routes of travel -- Interesting
localities -- Scenery -- Southern coast -- Portage Lake -- Dr. Houghton
-- Ontonagon -- Apostles' Islands -- Return trip -- Points of interest -- St.
Mary's River -- Lake St. George -- Point de Tour -- Lake Michigan --
Points of interest -- Chicago. 395
CHAPTER I.
Mackinaw and its surroundings -- Indian legends -- Hiawatha --
Ottawas and Ojibwas -- Paw-pau-ke-wis -- San-ge-man -- Kau-be-man
-- An Indian custom -- Dedication to the spirits -- Au-se-gum-ugs --
Exploits of San-ge-man -- Point St. Ignatius -- Magic lance -- Council
of Peace -- Conquests of San-ge-man.

Mackinaw, with its surroundings, has an interesting and romantic
history, going back to the earliest times. The whole region of the
Northwest, with its vast wildernesses and mighty lakes, has been
traditionally invested with a mystery. The very name of Mackinaw, in
the Indian tongue, signifies the dwelling-place of the Great Genii, and
many are the legends written and unwritten connected with its history.
If the testimony of an old Indian chief at Thunder Bay can be credited,
it was at old Mackinaw that Mud-je-ke-wis, the father of Hiawatha,
lived and died.
Traditional history informs us that away back in a remote period of
time, the Ottawas and the Ojibwas took up their journey from the Great
Salt Lake towards the setting sun. These tribes were never stationary,
but were constantly roving about. They were compared by the
neighboring tribes to Paw-pau-ke-wis, a name given by the Indians to
the light-drifting snow, which blows over the frozen ground in the
month of March, now whirling and eddying into gigantic and anon into
diminutive drifts. Paw-pau-ke-wis signifies running away. The name
was given to a noted Indian chief, fully equal in bravery and daring to
Hiawatha, Plu-re-busta, or Man-a-bosho.
The Ottawas and Ojibwas dwelt for a time on the Manitoulin Island in
Lake Huron. While the tribes dwelt here, two distinguished Indian
youths, by the name of San-ge-man and Kau-be-man, remarkable for
their sprightliness, attracted the attention of their particular tribes. Both
were the youngest children of their respective families. It was the
custom of the Indians to send their boys, when young, to some retired
place a short distance from their village, where they were to fast until
the manitoes or spirits of the invisible world should appear to them.
Temporary lodges were constructed for their accommodation. Those
who could not endure the fast enjoined upon them by the Metais or
Medicine-men, never rose to any eminence, but were to remain in
obscurity. Comparatively few were able to bear the ordeal; but to all
who waited the appointed time, and endured the fast, the spiritual
guardian appeared and took the direction and control of their
subsequent lives. San-ge-man in his first trial fasted seven days, and on
the next he tasted food, having been reduced to extreme debility by his

long abstinence, during